Town boss Kieran McKenna had few complaints following his side’s 2-1 defeat at Middlesbrough, admitting his team made too many mistakes.

Cedric Kipre’s own goal two minutes into first-half injury time - four minutes after George Hirst had seen a penalty saved by home keeper Sol Brynn - handed the Teessiders the lead, then one-time Blues target Morgan Whittaker made it 2-0 on 55.

Skipper Dara O’Shea pulled one back for Town with a header in the 76th minute, his first goal for the club, but the Blues were unable to find an equaliser.

It was a game of plenty of chances at both ends, while the Blues probably should have been awarded an earlier penalty when a Hirst shot was handled by home defender Alfie Jones.

“Probably too eventful for our liking,” McKenna said when it was put to him it was an eventful game. “I don’t have too many complaints about the result because I think we made too many mistakes to win a tough away game like this against a good team in form.

“And we also didn’t manage the difficult phases of the game well enough. In that, I mean the end of the first half when it got really chaotic.

“Of course, we had a big moment with the penalty to go 1-0 up and the night could have been really different, but you can’t go in 1-0 down from that situation, so we need to be stronger.

“And then the same at the start of the second half and in and around the second goal. It’s not like us, too easily played through, we didn’t stay together, stay strong enough defensively in that moment when it was really tough.

“Other than that, there wasn’t much in the game. We had plenty of chances through the night, Middlesbrough had chances as well. We allowed the game to be too open.

“But I feel we’ve made too many mistakes and we haven’t managed the difficult moments in the game well enough to come and get a win or a result in a place like this.”

McKenna felt the phase of play just before half-time was the defining spell: “I think the game changes completely at 1-0 and that’s been the story of our away games so far.

“I don’t think we’ve had the lead in an away game and if you go through them all we’ve had big moments in every game to go 1-0 up

“When you give the opposition and the crowd that energy, one, by missing the penalty and, two, by giving away a really poor goal right before half-time, it completely altered the game.”

Once again the Blues’ subs made an impression, Marcelino Nunez having sent over the corner which led to O’Shea’s goal, while Jack Clarke again caught the eye and Ivan Azon caused the Boro backline one or two problems.

“Subs made an impact,” McKenna reflected. “We had a really good spell where we were chasing the equaliser as well. Again, bar a couple of inches when Jack Clarke puts it across to Ivan, I’m not quite sure how it fell between the goalie’s hands and Ivan’s foot.

“We had a couple of big moments to get back to 2-2. The players were trying, they stuck at it and in the end Middlesbrough loaded up and defended their box well and we didn’t create in the last five minutes or 10 minutes, but we had a spell where we really pushed well for the goal, good impact from the bench.

“We’re going to need that, but the reality is that we can’t keep going 1-0 down away from home, it makes a tough task even tougher. We need to do more to get ourselves ahead in the game and not give anything cheap to the opposition.”

Keeper Alex Palmer was forced to make a number of outstanding saves before the break, having been called into action relatively rarely in the Blues’ games up to now.

“It was really unlike us tonight, we’ve been really tight,” McKenna continued. “Defensively, I don’t think we’ve conceded from open play since the Derby game before tonight.

“It’s unlike us. To be fair to Middlesbrough, they carried a good counter-threat all night, but we gave away too much and we needed Alex to make some saves.

“And, to be fair, they needed their goalkeeper to make some saves and for us to miss some chances as well. It was that type of game but Alex stepped up pretty well.”

McKenna confirmed that midfielder Azor Matusiwa is suspended for Tuesday’s home game against Charlton having been booked for a fifth time, one of those in the abandoned match at Blackburn Rovers.

Photo: TWTD

Dubchief added 17:03 - Oct 18 Unfortunately you can just blame the players for mistakes made, the best manager on the night won that match too. Merson on sky sports was correct with Leif playing in a front 5 we don’t have enough cover in defence and we can’t keep going away from home and setting up like that, the it was the same at Bristol City we are there for the taking on the counter throughout the 90 minutes. Only hope we have in games if we setup like that is if we bag the first goal, if not we cause our own problems. McKenna needs to fix that as it’s his strategy that is flawed. Hirst needs to be swapped out for a while too he misses a couple of big chances every game, telegraphed that penalty too liked twice at the spot he aimed at.

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Dubchief added 17:12 - Oct 18 *can’t just blame the players is what I was meant to say
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